


And The Rains Came Down

by ElleMartin



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: F/M, more tags to be added later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 09:50:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17722886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElleMartin/pseuds/ElleMartin
Summary: The battle is over. Now it’s time to face the future.





	And The Rains Came Down

**Author's Note:**

  * For [I_was_BOTWP](https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_was_BOTWP/gifts).



> This piece is dedicated to my amazing friend (though that word doesn’t seem strong enough for you) i_was_botwp. I hope that when you read this you’ll realize just how much you mean to me. Thank you for everything.

Sunlight dappled the ground of the orchard as Hermione sought refuge in the seemingly only shaded place on the Burrow’s grounds. The house was stifling; too many bodies what with the usual Weasley clan and additional friends coming and going with no place else to settle now that the war was over. Even with every window flung wide, there wasn’t enough wind these days to stir the slightest cooling breeze. Everyone was miserable. Sleep was impossible and tempers ran higher than ever. Hermione couldn’t wait to get away.  _ Just a few more days and then it’s off to Australia _ , she reminded herself as she scraped her hair away from her neck. She wandered away from the main path of the orchard, seeing a particularly dense clump of trees off to the side. She settled herself on the ground, stretching out with her hands resting on her stomach as she mentally plotted her upcoming trip. This was the most peace she’d found in weeks. 

 

“There you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

 

The voice sounded muffled and far away. Hermione was caught off guard when she cracked open her eyes to see a shadowed figure standing before her. His hands were on his hips as he shook his head at her. “Fred?” she croaked out. Her own voice sounded slightly garbled, and she cleared her throat.

 

“What are you doing all the way out here?” he asked. The dried grass crunched as he sank down next to her. “Are you hiding from my mum?” he whispered conspiratorially.

 

Hermione smiled. “Not just her. More like hiding from everyone.”

 

“Even me?” 

 

Her smile turned a bit more shy as her cheeks brightened at his query. “Never you, you know that.”

 

“I’ve been looking for you,” Fred said. “We haven’t had much time to talk since… well, everything.”

 

Hermione propped herself up on her elbows and tried to focus. She knew that they needed to have this talk. They’d been dancing around it since last year, before she’d had to leave on the hunt with Harry. In many ways, their flirtations had gone back even further, back to her fifth year, but she’d been so confused with feelings and wonderings about Ron as well. She had wanted the time to make sure that she could be certain just which Weasley boy she wanted, and Fred had understood. Now a year had passed, and all Hermione knew was that it hadn’t been Ron’s lips that had plagued her dreams every night.

 

Fred sensed her hesitancy, and took the lead. “I know it’s been a while, and I know that a lot has happened in that time. I also know that you may not feel the same way about me, but…” He took a deep breath.  “I understand if you’re not ready to talk about us and the future just yet,” Fred continued on. “I mean, we just fought in a war.”

 

“It still feels so unreal,” Hermione said. “We’ve been living under the shadows of this war for so many years.”

 

“I know what you mean,” he said. “Honestly, I’m just glad you’re safe. I don’t know what I’d have done if you’d been injured or lost. When I heard what happened at the Malfoys’.... Hermione, you don’t know how hard it was for me to stay put, but we were all being watched like crazy, and I couldn’t risk giving away your position.”

 

Hermione’s stomach clenched. She didn’t want to talk about that day at the Manor. She didn’t even want to think of it. She turned her head away from the man next to her, and instead focused on the trees overhead. The heat of the day had rendered everything hazy around the edges in almost an ethereal way. For a moment she found herself so caught up in the beauty of the way the leaves blurred on the trees that it took her a moment to realize that Fred was still speaking. His words seemed to slip away before she could make sense of them. Even his face seemed to be going in and out of focus. Had the heat messed with her head too? Had she fallen asleep? Everything felt a bit off kilter, like the world was spinning too fast too soon,and she was barely hanging on. 

 

“...and don’t get me started on you riding a dragon, Hermione. What was that about?”

 

“I didn’t tell you about the dragon,” she murmured. 

 

“Yes, well, when you crash a dragon through Gringotts, word gets around,” he laughed. “I’m sure there’s a lot you haven’t told me about that didn’t make the news.”

 

There was now that she thought about it. How she’d blamed herself for leaving behind the bag of food that she’d meticulously prepared so that they wouldn’t go hungry. How she hadn’t even realized that she’d left behind said bag until they were in the tent because she’d foolishly hoped that they’d be able to use Grimmauld Place as a base for as long as needed. She studied the swaying leaves again. They seemed to coalesce briefly into shapes. 

 

“Is this a dream?” she asked suddenly. 

 

“Why would you ask that?” he said. 

 

“Everything seems off somehow,” she said without taking her eyes off of the leaves. “I feel like I’m missing something. Something important.”

 

“It’s probably just your body still playing catch up. I’ll bet you haven’t had much sleep lately, have you?”

 

She shook her head. 

 

“That’s it, then.” He hummed quietly for a moment as they lay there, enjoying the peace brought just by being being close together again. “Do you need me to sing you a lullaby? ‘ _...a dream it’s true, but I’d see it through, if I could be wasting my time with you _ ’,” he sang softly. 

 

“How do you know that song?” she asked. Nobody ever knew that song.

 

“You sing it in the shower, and there are thin walls in the Burrow,” he said. 

 

“Oh.” The leaves were writhing now, just like that damned giant snake. Had she told him about Godric’s Hollow, or was that something else he’d learned about through other channels? And if he already knew everything, what else would they have to talk about? “I’m scared, Fred.”

 

“Impossible. You’re Hermione Granger, brave Gryffindor queen, and now brilliant war hero.” 

 

She set him with a deathly glare, and he at least had the grace to look properly chagrined before muttering an apology. She fixed her gaze back on the snakes in the tree that now looked oddly like green lions’ manes surrounding gaping maws just ready to swallow her whole. As she readied her thoughts, the world started tilting as well as spinning entirely too fast for her liking. Her stomach was ready to revolt.

 

“I’m scared that after all we’ve been through, I won’t be the same person anymore. Scratch that, I  _ know _ I won’t be and that’s what scares me. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to restore my parents’ memories, and I will live the rest of my life in a lonely hellscape because my parents won’t know me, my friends won’t be my friends anymore because we’ll all have changed so much, and… and I’m scared because you’re dead.”

 

“I’m-- I’m dead?” 

 

“Yes. You died and that terrifies me because I-- I just-- I never had any plans for my life that didn’t include you in some fashion or another.” 

 

WIth those words, her world stopped spinning.

 

Hermione turned her head to look at his reaction to her words, but he was gone. She looked back towards the trees above her head. The leaves were just leaves again, rustling with the slight breeze that was starting to make its presence known. She closed her eyes to listen to their whispers, but whatever the trees had to say, it wasn’t for her to hear. She was reminded of Harry in the Death Room saying that there were voices beyond the veil whispering to him, and she bolted upright.

 

“Fred?” she asked. The whispers grew louder. “I’m not sure if you can actually hear me or not. To be honest, I’ve never quite put much stock in the whole ‘talking with the dead’ thing, though this afternoon’s experiences thus far will certainly have to be examined at a later date. Maybe my subconscious just really wanted me to face things that I’ve been hiding from… I don’t know. It’s all a bit bizarre, is it not?” She swore the wind laughed at her as it rushed through the orchard so suddenly. Her hair whipped around her face. “I’m rambling a bit too much, aren’t I?” she asked as she pulled the locks of hair out of her mouth and eyes. “I just, I just want to say… I wanted a future with you, dammit.”

 

With those words spoken into the void, she stood and started trudging against the rough wind back towards the Burrow. She wouldn’t speak of her experience in the orchard to anyone. It wasn’t for them. No one had even known that she and Fred had had… well, whatever it was they’d had. George possibly, but she didn’t want to ask. She reached the gate that led to the worn path up to the kitchen door, and let out a heavy sigh. The sun was gone, and she thought for a moment that she felt a few drops of rain hit her cheeks. Could just as easily be tears, though. She put her hand on the gate, and glanced around before whispering to Fred once more.

 

“If you can still hear me, I’d really like it if you’d visit me again. If you can, that is.” She looked skywards at the thick grey clouds that had taken over. “It looks like rain. Maybe I can finally catch a kip. I’ll try to dream of you, okay? Meet me there?”

 

As she passed through the gate, the clouds broke, and the rains came down. Hermione began to hum to herself, “ _...a dream it’s true, but I’d see it through, if I could be wasting my time with you _ .”

  
  


_Author Note: Song lyric is from Waste by the band called Phish released in 1996._


End file.
